India and the USA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a joint implementation committee to regularly monitor and boost the PEACE (Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy) initiative in New Delhi. This new initiative PEACE was launched in 2013 under the India-US Energy Dialogue.

Objective: To harness commercial enterprise to bring clean energy access to un-served and underserved Indian villages, capture lessons learned, and develop best practices. Reliable and cost-effective off-grid clean energy solutions can significantly improve the quality of life and economic conditions in rural households and communities.

Focus Areas of Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy (PEACE)

Sharing best practices and institutional and other approaches.

Finance.

Technology innovation, standards, testing, and certification.

Skill development and information sharing.

Under the U.S.-India Energy Dialogue 2014, both the Governments finalized an initial plan of activities viz.

To create a new “PACEsetter fund” to support the development of early-stage, innovative clean energy solutions for un-served and underserved populations in India.

To cooperate on a study to recommend the design of a smart micro-grid pilot to test and validate a business model for scaling up smart micro-grids commercially.

Will work with stakeholders to develop a quality assurance framework, including control standards and performance benchmarks, that can serve consumers better in terms of safety, reliability, performance and cost comparison, and facilitate the delivery of high quality products to the market.

Off-Grid Alliance: To establish an alliance of businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and government to strengthen India’s off-grid ecosystem, bring existing efforts to scale, and attract new businesses and commercial enterprises.

Note: The implementation of PEACE will be under the New Technology and Renewable Energy (NTRE) Working Group of the U.S.-India Energy Dialogue.